The Kirkus Prize is one of the richest literary awards in the world, with a prize of $50,000 bestowed annually to authors of fiction, nonfiction and young readers’ literature. It was created to celebrate the 81 years of discerning, thoughtful criticism Kirkus Reviews has contributed to both the publishing industry and readers at large. Books that earned the Kirkus Star with publication dates between November 1, 2015, and October 31, 2016 (see FAQ for exceptions), are automatically nominated for the 2016 Kirkus Prize, and the winners will be selected on November 3, 2016, by an esteemed panel composed of nationally respected writers and highly regarded booksellers, librarians and Kirkus critics.

KIRKUS REVIEW

A young woman’s account
of how a dysfunctional family situation caused her to become separated from her
six siblings but how all seven still managed to reconnect.

New Jersey native King
was the second-oldest child of working-class parents “whose passions burned
like an incinerator and swung wildly from love to hate and back again.” By the
time her fourth sibling was born, her father began actively disappearing.
Strapped for cash, the author’s mother put her third child, Becky Jo, in the
care of her parents in Oklahoma. From that moment on, life in the King household
followed a predictable pattern: the father would return temporarily, then leave
his wife pregnant with another child who would get adopted as soon as it was
born. When King’s parents finally divorced, they decided to send both King and
her elder brother to join Becky Jo in Oklahoma. A Yankee girl in a place where
it seemed the natives thought “the Civil War [was] still going on,” King
gradually—though uneasily—settled into the life thrust upon her. She eventually
accepted a name change and became the family golden child. Yet she never forgot
the brother whom her grandfather, in a fit of rage, sent back to New Jersey for
misbehavior, nor could she forget about the siblings she had never met. King
returned to New York for college, preparing for the day she would meet the
siblings she knew would come looking for her. She desired to be “a person worth
finding, worth keeping.” As King made peace with her parents, each of the
children, all girls, who had been adopted found her. Working together, the
author and her siblings then began the difficult task of reclaiming the
familial ties that had been denied them. King not only explores the impact of
disrupted relationships; she also eloquently probes the meaning of both love
and human connectedness.

A poignant memoir that
thoughtfully examines a set of difficult and unique family relationships.

Be the first to discover new talent!
Each week, our editors select the one author and one book they believe to be most worthy of your attention and highlight them in our Pro Connect email alert.
Sign up here to receive your FREE alerts.